Research students

Functional Phrase List Used for Conducting
Discussions, Debates, Giving Presentations


1. Starting a discussion
I see...
Well...
I say...
First...
First of all...
To begin with...
Look here ...
Talking (speaking) of, about...
Let me see (think)...
Just a minute (moment)...
That reminds me...
To come back to...
May I have my say? ...
In fact...
The fact is that...
On the one hand ..., on the other hand ...
And now for...
As far as I know...
2. Ending a discussion
To tell the truth ...
To sum up ...
Summarizing ...
Summing it up ...
On the whole ...
All in all...
In conclusion ...
Finally...
In the long run ...
In short...
To make (cut) a long story short ...
That's all (there is to it)...
For all I know ...
There it is ...
And so ...
So much for that...
Let's round off...
3. Expressing one's point of view
My own feeling is ...
I can quite (well easily) believe it (that)...
It's my opinion that...
In my opinion ...
I think (believe, suppose, maintain, feel, hope) that…
To my mind ...
Personally, I...
I dare say...
To tell the truth ...
If you ask me ...
Do you mean to say ...?
What do you mean (think) ...?
I mean to say ...
What do you think of...?
What matters is ...
I want to press the point...
In any case ...
More than that...
I must admit...
I'm afraid ...
I'm tempted to agree ...
4. Discussing a topic
I should like to know ...
Could you possibly...?
Any questions?
Have you got any questions?
I have (got) some (several) questions ...
Just one question on this point (paper) ...
As to the question of Mr. N...
I would like to ask you about (whether) ...
May I ask a question?
Will (would) you say a few words about...?
I wonder whether (if) ...
In reply to your question ...
I'd like to say that...
I have (got) a few (several) comments about (on)...
I should mention that...
I should emphasize that...
The problem (article, paper) under discussion ...
I'd like to add a few words to ...
I realize that...
Do you follow me?
Do you take my point? I can't make up my mind where I stand on this. I am convinced that...
That's the way I look at things.